“Availability is no longer just a technical metric. It is a national priority,” says Raj Jain, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of RS Software. In an ET Edge Insights interview published October 3, 2026, Jain connects the everyday reliability of UPI to a broader point: at national scale, payment security, fraud management and continuity are part of the infrastructure that sustains public trust.
Who is Raj Jain, and what was RS Software’s role in UPI?
Jain leads RS Software, a payments technology company. In the ET Edge Insights interview, he describes the company as a technology partner to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) during UPI’s development. That is the interview’s account of RS Software’s role; it is not an independent technical audit of UPI’s design or a complete account of all organisations involved.
His perspective is useful for understanding the operational demands of a payment system, but it should be read as the view of an industry executive, not as an official definition of UPI or a regulator’s assessment of its controls.
What is UPI?
NPCI defines the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as an instant payment system it developed, built over the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), that enables transfers between bank accounts. UPI is the payment rail: it is not a bank account and is not the same thing as any one consumer-facing app. A person may use an app to initiate a payment, while the transfer takes place through the interoperable system linking participating banks. NPCI’s UPI FAQ explains the system and offers consumer guidance.
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How does India Stack fit into the picture?
The Government of India describes India Stack as a framework of open APIs and digital public goods—not a single app, company or payments product. The idea is that shared digital infrastructure can let different services and organisations build connected experiences. Its components span identity, payments, document access and public services.
- Aadhaar provides a digital identity layer.
- UPI supports instant account-to-account payments.
- DigiLocker enables digital access to documents.
- e-Sign supports electronic signing.
- e-KYC supports electronic know-your-customer processes.
- Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) is part of the public-benefit delivery ecosystem.
- Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is a digital health infrastructure initiative.
These components are related through the broader digital-public-infrastructure approach, but they do not all perform the same function. UPI moves payments; Aadhaar is an identity system, for example. The Government of India’s India Stack overview describes the framework and its named building blocks.
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How large is UPI, according to the Government of India?
A 2026 Press Information Bureau (PIB), Government of India factsheet reports that UPI served more than 55.49 crore individuals, 6.5 crore merchants and 731 banks. The same factsheet says UPI accounted for 85% of India’s digital payment transactions by volume in FY 2025–26, and that it was accepted in 11 foreign countries. These are figures as reported by PIB; the 85% figure is specifically for the stated financial year and transaction volume, not a share of transaction value. PIB’s factsheet is the source for this snapshot.
The figures indicate reach and use, but scale alone does not establish a system’s security, availability in every circumstance or comparative standing against other countries’ payment systems.
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Jain’s case for security as core infrastructure
Jain argues that the move from card-based payments to instant digital payments changes the risk environment: payments complete quickly, and fraud controls must keep pace with that speed. In his view, older approaches to fraud detection are not sufficient for this environment; he advocates a unified, real-time risk-management layer.
“Cybersecurity, therefore, became central to the payment ecosystem, not as an add-on, but as core infrastructure required to protect trust, continuity and adoption,” Jain says in the interview. This is his argument about the requirements of digital payments, rather than an independent description of UPI’s specific technical architecture.
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The regulator’s broader risk frame
The Reserve Bank of India’s 2024 publication notes that digitalisation can support growth, financial inclusion, fiscal transfers and cross-border payments, while also raising challenges that include cybersecurity, data privacy and concentration risk. That is a general assessment of digitalisation’s risks; it does not, by itself, establish a particular UPI vulnerability or incident. The RBI publication provides the regulator-level context.
Put together, the distinction matters: Jain is making an operational and strategic case for real-time risk management, while the RBI identifies categories of risk that policymakers and financial institutions must manage across digital finance. A fast payment rail has to be dependable, but speed does not remove the need for fraud controls, privacy protections, dispute processes or operational resilience.
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What UPI users should do with their PIN
For an immediate, practical safeguard, NPCI says: “Please do not share your UPI-PIN with anyone.” Its consumer guidance also says bank customer support will never ask for the PIN. This protects a user credential; it is not a substitute for the broader security and resilience measures required across banks, apps and payment infrastructure. NPCI’s FAQ sets out the warning.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is UPI unique compared with other real-time payment systems?
The interview raises the question of what distinguishes UPI globally, but a defensible country-to-country comparison needs consistent evidence. Systems can differ in who may participate, how banks and apps interoperate, onboarding and accessibility, transaction speed and availability, fraud controls, dispute handling, consumer protection, and whether they support domestic or cross-border payments.
Without comparable evidence across those dimensions, it would be misleading to rank UPI as uniquely better or to treat its scale figures as proof of global leadership. The supported conclusion is narrower: PIB reports extensive domestic reach and acceptance in 11 foreign countries, while a full comparison requires like-for-like data on other systems and the same measures.
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